Bass players. The epitome of cool. There they are at the side or back of the stage thumping away on the strings and providing the rich deep groove of a song. I’ve never seen a bass guitarist get in a flap on stage. How can they be so relaxed? Is it because they only have 4 strings to worry about or that a bum note on a bass is so hard to notice?

These are my favourite bass riffs or should I say ones that have come to my mind in the past week when I thought about writing this article. There are so many fantastic bass grooves from the disco and funk era but I’ll stick exclusively to rock and pop as this list may never finish otherwise.

Aeroplane (1996) – Red Hot Chili Peppers. Bass player: Flea

I’m starting to do a u-turn back to the music of the RHCP. Their Sydney concert in 2005 sucked so badly that they’ve been off my playlist ever since. Its got a nice bass solo with the slapping bass style Flea is known for. A rock music video with synchronized swimming. Interesting.

Lido Shuffle (1977) – Boz Scaggs. Bass player: Dave Hungate

This song is perhaps the most overplayed song on Australian classic rock stations, but with good reason. Listen to that bass and drum intro. Honorable mention to the bass on their other track Lowdown. Yes its not rock but if anyone ever says white people can’t produce solid funk or disco show them that… or anything from KC & The Sunshine Band for that matter.

My Generation (1965). The Who. Bass Player: John Entwistle.

Go on, look at his face, he could be playing in his sleep. He rips the bass solo while scanning around the crowd for a suitable groupie for backstage. Like a boss.

Little Green Bag (1969). George Back Selection. Bass Player: Jan Visser

This song was made famous again by the 1992 Tarantino film ‘Reservoir Dogs’. Tsk tsk if you hadn’t heard of it before then (yes sadly, I’m one of those “I was into them before they were even born” people but no I’m not a hipster!). It’s a classic, its from the best era of rock – the 60s. The film clip is erm, a little disturbing and don’t even ask what the significance of a little green bag is. It doesn’t make sense and just ruins the song if you think about it too much. So stop thinking about it already.

New Years Day (1983). U2. Bass Player: Adam Clayton

Despite people’s reservations of Clayton’s bass playing abilities this is a solid track. Even though the tempo is too fast in this video its special because back then The Edge had hair, Larry Mullins Jnr actually cracked a smile, Bono was skinny and Adam Clayton just looks too cool for school.

Seven Nation Army (2003). White Stripes. Bass Player: .. there isn’t one.

This is an unmistakable bass riff. The bass sound is achieved using a semi-acoustic guitar and an effect pedal. Sure, the White Stripes were overrated but they didn’t really need to make any further contribution after this song.

Peter, Bjorn and John (2006). Young Folks. Bass Player: Björn Yttling

This is bordering into the indie pop territory but its an awesome tune. Simple drum track with a sweet bass overlay. It wins the Roger Whittaker Award for ‘Excellence in Whistling in a song post 1970′s’. Representing for whistlers everywhere. The animated video for the film clip is also hot.

In order they are:

• Michael Jackson – Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (1979)
• Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ (1981)
• Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now (1978)
• Rihanna – Don’t Stop the Music (2007)
• Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow (1977)

(Don’t) Stop… or I’ll Sue

Who Sampled Who?

Buy the “How Were You Born” T-shirt on Threadless now >

Threadless How Were You Born Tee - Girly (BTW, this is not me)

Rewinding the clock back to 6 weeks ago, I came up with the STREET ART POSTER CONCEPT – HOW WERE YOU BORN?  The original post got picked up on a number of social media channels and sites and so I decided to submit it as an original design for Threadless t-shirts. 10 days of voting and a few more weeks of waiting and I was told my t-shirt had been chosen to print as part of Threadless Labs.

Read the Media Release from Threadless: http://threadlessrules.com/post/13796754725/how-were-you-born-by-natalie-hayter-is-a-new-tee

Ever wondered what the album covers of some of the world’s well known musical artists would look like if their name was changed to its polar opposite?

Flicking through my iPod I came up with a few ideas for alternative (opposite) names.

From there I created new album cover mashups.

The 10 Band Name Opposite Album Mashups

The Making Of…

Finding the Fonts
The hardest part of this project was finding similar fonts / typography to that used on the album covers. You can generally get a rough idea of what family it might be from and start a process of elimination. Is it Serif or Sans-Serif? What is the shape of the letter tails?

A Little Help
To save time I like to use the What the Font uploader tool. You upload an image of the font used and the online app uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to suggest possible font matches. It’s not perfect and most of the fonts they suggest are ones you have to buy through their site. However, with this information you can look for free alternatives on sites such as dafont.com.

The Best Things in Life Are Free
Failing this, you can always pick the brains of the Internet’s expert typographers on the WhattheFont Forum. Post your font image and wait for the font suggestions to roll in. I’ve always had a resolution using this service which is best of all, free.

I’ve listed the fonts and images I used for the album covers at the bottom of this post.

Relevance for the Web Designer
Often as a Web Designer, you’ll be given an existing logo or marketing collateral for which there is no font name supplied. This can happen when agencies are over protective of their original master designs and want any future work or changes to be done through them. To avoid this monopoly, you can save the day for your client by identifying the font and finding a free alternative to use in their website designs.

Sources:
1. Nirvana. Font: Nirvana (free).
Image: http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/nirvana_nevermind_cover.jpg
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Font: Courier New (free).
Image: http://i41.tinypic.com/34hamoo.jpg
3. The B-52's. Font: ComicBook (free).
Image: http://jackshigh.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/rock-lobster1.jpg
4. The Who. Font: Arial Bold (free).
Image: http://www.newreleasesnow.com/art/TheWho-GreatestHits.jpg
5. Destiny's Child. Font: Arkitech (free).
Image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JcQs_1bZoJo/SXsM3FQRGrI/
AAAAAAAAAVM/C0FNzmd-SjQ/s400/DC_Destiny_Fulfilled_low.jpg
6. No Doubt. Font: Old English Text (free).
Image: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/12/no-doubt-singles-490.jpg
7. The Cardigans. Font: Arial (free).
Image: http://www.ehlel.com/imageup/upload/cardigans_-best_of.jpg
8. Vanilla Ice. Font: Franklin Gothic Demi (free) with Craquelure filter overlay
Image: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JREJCTYepo8/SZSJfGalihI/AAAAAAAABew/
ZdRMVtuW-x8/s400/The-Best-Of-Vanilla-Ice.jpg
9. Ace of Base. Font: Mekanik LET (free).
Image: http://i35.tinypic.com/2vc9wdh.jpg
10. Crowded House. Font: Alte Haas Grotesque.
Image: http://img.sharedmp3.net/files/pics/643/642275/img_1_pr.jpg

How Were You Born Street Art Concept - N.Hayter 2011

I see a lot interesting Street Art Posters around Sydney and appreciate their ability to make me smile. This is a design concept I came up with revolving around the theme ‘How Were You Born?’. The answers are of course song titles and the matching images are the singers. If you need a refresher on what these songs sound like, scroll down to watch a compilation video.

In order they are:

• Lady Gaga – Born This Way (2011)
• Patrick Hernandez – Born to Be Alive (1979)
• Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run (1975)
• Steppenwolf lead singer John Kay – Born to Be Wild (1968)
• Hank Williams Jr – Born to Boogie (1987)

Print your own and pin it

Print your own version to put up on your favorite telegraph pole, traffic light post, graffiti lined alleyway, or liven up your campus, school or office. If you pin it take a photo and share it in the comments of this post. I’ve had reported sightings of it in the UK and United States so far.

DOWNLOAD JPG VERSION Download JPG version 195kb

DOWNLOAD PDF VERSION Download PDF version 425kb

Need a refresher on the songs?

The making of

Street Art Concept Sketch

I did some rough sketches on paper first and decided I’d just go with simple silhouette heads all based on the same oval shape. I had a few other songs I’d brainstormed (Born to Love You – Queen, Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen, Born To Try – Delta Goodrem) but decided to just go with 5 for a less cluttered design.

More to come

I’ve already got some ideas for future street flyers based on the same concept but using different themes. Subscribe so you don’t miss out.

As featured on

• This post (4,687 views, 38 tweets, 95 FB likes)
• The Laughing Squid (99 likes, 56 tweets)
• The Laughing Squid Links Blog (2,800+ likes and shares)
• Buzzfeed
• I Can Has Cheezburger Network (149 votes, 4.5 unicorns out of 5)
• Stumble Upon (583 shares)
• Wall Street Geek
• Typo Australia Facebook (343 likes, 60 shares)
• Democratic Underground
• Official Pearl Jam Forum
• Neatorama
• GuitarSquid
• The Meta Picture
• 9 Gag – Just for Fun
• SaturdayNights&NeonLights Tumblr

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Dr Chau Chak Wing Building Frank Gehry Design Sydney UTS

One of my favourite architects, Frank Gehry will get to leave his legacy in my home city of Sydney. This will come in the form of a $150 million building for the University of Technology Sydney. The building will be called the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building. Construction starts early next year (2012) and is planned to open in March 2014.

Frank Gehry has described the building as:

“a trunk and core of activity and… branches for people to connect and do their private work.”

Who is Dr Chau Chak Wing?

Dr Chau is a Chinese businessman and Australian citizen said to be worth around $1 billion dollars (AUD). He donated $25 million to UTS for this project; with $5 million going to create an endowment fund for Australia-China student scholarships.

The ‘Tree-house’ is sure to polarise Sydney-siders’ opinions much like the Jørn Utzon designed Sydney Opera House did in 1973. It will certainly add a touch of modernity to a corner of the city which desperately needs a face lift.

For other blog posts I’ve done covering Frank Gehry see:

• Architect Perspective: Frank Gehry genius of the Walt Disney Concert Hall
• Old School Style Sketches – Lead pencil and paper (including Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles)

I read in the newspaper last week that 7 new Dingo pups were born at Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney in the last month. I decided to go and see them before they all grew up! Dingos are a type of wild Australian native dog. They were introduced to Australia about 6 to 8,000 years by South East Asian travelers.

Other animals I took photos of were: Goanna, Brolga, Koala, Goose, Egret, Black Breasted Buzzard, Australian Wood Duck, Tawny Frog Mouth, Silkie Chicken and Kookaburra.

My favourite photo is the first one of the Black Breasted Buzzard preening itself with its plumage out.

Click for high res images:

At the end of April 2011 I did a day trip along part of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. It was a long day of driving from Melbourne to get to the 12 Apostles. Below are images I took and outlines of each of the sights. Acknowledgement to Wikipedia for the wording.

12 Apostles

The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park. The apostles were formed by erosion: the harsh weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed; leaving rock stacks up to 45 metres high

Loch Ard Gorge

The gorge is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which ran aground on nearby Muttonbird Island on 1 June 1878 approaching the end of a three-month journey from England toMelbourne. Of the fifty-one passengers and crew, only two survived: Tom Pearce, a ship’s apprentice, and Eva Carmichael, an Irishwoman immigrating with her family, both of whom were 18 years of age. According to memorials at the site, Pearce was washed ashore, and rescued Carmichael from the water after hearing her cries for help. Pearce then proceeded to climb out of the gorge to raise the alarm to local pastoralists who immediately set into plan a rescue attempt.

London Arch / London Bridge

London Arch is a natural arch in the Port Campbell National Park, Australia. The arch is one of the tourist attractions along the Great Ocean Road near Port Campbell in Victoria. This stack was formed by a gradual process of erosion, and until 1990 formed a complete double-span natural bridge.

Click for high res images: